iTouch 10 #1 Provo City Center
We had the BEST DAY Saturday!
Our Family theme for 2014 is iStand. The scripture that goes along with it is Doctrine and Covenants 87:8: Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen.
Our goal: to Stand in as many holy places as possible this year! On Saturday we managed to stand in 10!
This was a day Steve and I had been planning for months. We were so excited. We kept it a surprise and didn't tell anyone what we were doing (although some of my children were able to figure it out-kind of). We rented a suburban so my mom and Lauren could go with us. We started out at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning. We began by reading a story President Monson told about a grandfather who took his granddaughter to the temple for her birthday. She wasn't old enough to go in, but he had her touch the outside of the temple. He told her to remember that on this day she touched the temple and that someday she would go inside. President Monson went on to say that when we touch the temple, the temple touches us. Steve and I wanted to create a memory for our family that our children could look back on and would remember the day they touched the temple and the temple in turn touched them. We started at the Provo City Center Temple that is still under construction (shown above). After that we went to Shirley's Homemades to pick out a delicious pastry.
iTouch 10 #2: Provo Utah
iTouch 10 #3 Mount Timpanogos
This temple was closed for maintenance so we weren't able to get past the gate to touch the actual temple, but we figured the fence post was close enough. Steve was excited to park in the Temple Presidents parking space.
iTouch 10 #4 Draper Utah
iTouch 10 #5 Oquirrh Mountain
Being here brought back great memories of the summer of 2009. Steve's brother Mike and his family were here visiting from Kentucky. It was their first day of vacation. We had tickets for all of us to go through the open house for this temple. My kids and I were all so sick, we could hardly hold ourselves up while walking through the temple. We didn't know it at the time but we had swine flu! And as soon as we got out of the temple and were eating cookies in the reception tent, Mike took a call from his office that informed him he was being laid off. Thankfully this visit to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple was much more pleasant!
iTouch 10 #6 Jordan River
This used to be the temple Steve and I frequented when we lived in our old house. So being here also brought back great memories. This was one of my kids favorite temples because they thought it looked like a spider web.
Lunch break! I wanted to eat at interesting, yummy places we had never been to. I did a lot of research and found this little place. It was AWESOME! The make their sandwiches on these "popovers" and stuff them not with processed lunch meat, but with real meat made fresh in their store (Zac is eating a calzone). It was fabulous, the atmosphere was perfect too. Next time we are in South Jordan, we will be stopping there again! We were even able to try chocolate covered bacon. It looks gross, but it was totally delicious!
(We skipped the Salt Lake Temple. We were just there a few months ago, will be back there in about a month, and it would have taken us at least an hour to touch this temple.)
iTouch 10 #7 Bountiful Utah
I loved being here the most! This is the temple Steve and I were sealed in and it is also the temple we frequent regularly. The "front" of the temple was so crowded with multiple brides taking wedding pictures, we walked around to the "side", which apparently is really the front! I've never been on that side! Although Steve tells me I have and I do have pictures of us standing in front of that door, however, I have no recollection of it. It is absolutely gorgeous over there! I didn't even know that water fountain existed! I go there at least once a week and I had no idea there was a whole other world waiting just around the corner! My two eldest children knew, and they thought I was crazy. But that's nothing new. It was so nice, the day was so beautiful, we had just had lunch so our bellies were full, I had just found a secret wonderland....I kinda didn't want to leave. That's OK though, we will be back!
iTouch 10 #8 Ogden Utah
The Ogden Utah Temple is closed for extensive renovation. It used to look just like the Provo Temple, but it is completely different now. The open house is this summer and I'm so excited to see it when it's finished. Anyway, there was also something else going on and all the streets surrounding the temple were closed to traffic. This was as close as we could get!
iTouch 10 #9 Brigham City
I love this temple. We went to the open house a few years ago, and recently Steve and I and my mom and Lauren were able to go back to take family names and do the work for them. It is so beautiful.
iTouch 10 #10
I very well think this could be my new favorite temple! I have never seen it in person. It is stunning! The pictures don't even begin to do it justice. I am dying to go back and go inside and see it. Although the inside has been completely renovated. I found out that this temple used to be painted white! Then they decided to let the paint flake away to reveal the stone. Best decision ever! This was another temple we didn't want to leave. I could have just hung out in the drop dead gorgeous courtyard for hours! PS: This is the temple where Steve's mom and dad were sealed.
Of course we couldn't leave Logan without some famous Aggie Ice Cream!
Our last stop of the day was the Burger Bar for dinner. It was awesome. We sat up our lawn chairs in the parking lot and watched the action in trailer park in front of us.
We were all a little sad to turn our rental vehicle in. We really enjoyed traveling in comfort and style that day. My kids are now begging us to buy a Suburban. It's not a bad idea really.....
It was a fun, awesome day. I am so glad I was able to spend it with my family. I am so thankful that we live so close to so many temples. While we were driving, I had prepared temple facts for each temple to read as we were driving to that temple. I also had fun quizzes and word search puzzles and crossword puzzles about temples for everyone to do. We also heard some inspiring stories and fun temple facts. I have everything in a notebook, along with our itinerary. If anyone is ever interested in making copies or borrowing it, I would love to let you.
If you want to find out more about temples, click here.
